In Himeji we were looking for this Sen-en-no-ie (Thousand Yen/$10 hostel) but of course we got there at night in the rain and finding it was no small task. It didn�ft help that the restaurant we stopped in for directions wouldn�ft believe me when I explained that Audrey was no more Japanese than I. But no matter, we eventually found this �gdrab�h house of concrete, tucked away far from the road or any real signage. (Maybe we would have found it earlier had the romaji sign out front read Sen-en-no-ie instead of .) But hey, for $10 a night we can�ft complain. Not even about the creepy showers with no hot water.

We slept in but got to the Himeji Prefectural History Museum in time for me to try on samurai gear and for Audrey to wear a kimono. Admittedly it�fd been an ambition of mine since I set foot in Kyoto, though there aren�ft that many samurai walking around the streets (while there are plenty of old women in kimono, even in sweltering June heat). The sun finally came out, as if on cue, after the dress-up experience. We stopped at a real toy exhibit (where else but the history museum next to a castle?) where, among other things, we saw an original Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom), in all its ugly red glory.

Next we toured the awesome Himeji-jo, one of the most intact and beautiful castles left in Japan. It had lots of highlights, like the building for the famous ladies-in-waiting to, I guess, wait, and the seppuku (ritual suicide) corner. The suicide corner was one of the perimeter lookouts, so presumably watchguards who couldn�ft warn of an attack in time could conveniently disembowel themselves and have their, er, parts, thrown down the nearby well. There always seems to be a lot of blood involved with castles for some reason.